 |
|
|
|||||
Fast Company is the official media partner of Summit Detroit. Summit is an organization that hosts global ideas conferences and immersive experiences. And the programming is always grounded by six core pillars: thought leadership, health and happiness, performance arts, culinary arts, fine art, and impactall with the express intention to inspire deep attendee presence and build long-term connections both professionally and personally. Many of our Summit community members are building and running large high-profile companies, managing teams, and are surrounded by people and things to do. But our business leaders often feel incredibly lonely in their pursuits, says Jody Levy, CEO and global director of Summit. There’s an impact to a Summit gathering that invites commonality and allows these types of high-octane doers the chance to meet one another, relate to one another, and forge lifelong professional and personal friendships. This June 5-8, Summit lands in Detroit with an array of speakers, teachers, and artists who will bring their unique perspectives to Summits programming pillars. Thought leadership and impact Summit community members will be immersed in thoughtful discussions with prolific business and technology leaders including Ev Williams, co-founder of Twitter, Medium, and Mozi; Franz von Holzhausen, chief designer at Tesla; Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Rocket Companies; Tim Urban, cofounder of the podcast Wait But Why; futurist Pablos Holman; and many more. For those steeped in social justice, impact, and the humanities, Summit is curating a series of special sessions with influential leaders including Dr. Bernice A. King; Ashley Bell, founder and CEO of fintech platform Ready Life; and former NFL linebacker Dhani Jones discussing his investment in Holladay Bank & Trust, which will become the first Black-owned commercial bank through acquisition. Throughout Summits programming are sessions that pull from the past to help illustrate the future. For example, Eames Demetrios will take the stage to discuss the legacy of his grandparents, Charles and Ray Eameswidely considered among the most influential American designers of the 20th centuryand their longstanding connection to Detroit and their manufacturing innovations born out of wartime. There’s such a direct correlation to this moment that we are in, Levy says. Theres an opportunity to reinvent not just how we do things but the materials we use, the manufacturing methods we have access to, and how we will reinvent to sustain a complex manufacturing future. Health and happiness Summits lineup within its health and happiness pillar includes author and psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb; medical diagnostic entrepreneur and cofounder and CEO of Function Health, Jonathan Swerdlin; integrative medicine practitioner Dr. Linda Lancaster; and death expert Elena Brower. There will also be movement modalities and interactive workshops with Primal Moves from Ibiza, Spain; an African- and Caribbean-inspired dance workshop led by Stacy Letrice; and fitness and yoga sessions with acclaimed instructors including Melissa Levy, Jacey Cunningham, Kim Strother, and Ally Bogard. Performing and fine arts Underscoring Summits focus on fine art and the importance of live performance are immersive experiences including a conversation on the art of resilience from legendary choreographer and director Bill T. Jones; evening comedy sets from Ben Gleib (yes, he does roast the entrepreneurs, Levy promises); and live performances by The Wailers, Aluna, Coco & Breezy, LP Giobbi, Moodymann, and Tony Touch, as well as a popup experience with vinyl listening bar Dante’s HiFi. Culinary arts And it wouldnt be a Summit event without a culinary track, more specifically one that centers Detroits culinary renaissance. Featured this year are Javier Bardauil, chef and owner of Barda and Puma Detroit, specializing in Argentinian cuisine; Brad Greenhill, executive chef and co-owner of Takoi, a popular Thai-inspired eatery; Warda Bouguettaya, owner of the James Beard Award-winning bakery Warda Pâtisserie; Alexandra Clark, founder and head chocolatier of Bon Bon Bon Chocolate; and Hamisi Mamba and Nadia Nijimbere, owners of the East African restaurants Waka and Baobab Fare.Despite the structure of Summits programming pillars, Levy notes no one has to stick to one track or interest. A typical day at Summit can take on a variety of explorations. Our community doesn’t come to sit in a space and be a voyeur at a talk. Theyre in it, in flow, they get to participate, let their curiosity lead, and the true lessons and connections often happen in the in-betweens, before and after sessions, on walks to venues, meetups, mixers, in line for lattes, she says. We get to create an environment for our people to have the choose-your-own-adventure that makes each Summit so unique.Adding to what makes this Summit event distinctive is its host city of Detroit. Detroit, at this moment, in this time, is thriving, Levy says. There are so many people that have come in from around the world: artists, entrepreneurs, business leaders, founders, investors, chefs from all over the globe, musical talent, explorers. There is this thriving creator economy in Detroit that matches the curious and experimental spirit of Summit.Learn more about Summit and apply to attend Summit Detroit this June 5-8, 2025. Tickets start at $4,750.
Category:
E-Commerce
At a time when many fast-casual chains are struggling to get customers in the door, and rethinking their next moves both at home and internationally due to Trump’s trade wars, Chipotle Mexican Grill is expanding. The fast-casual restaurant announced on Monday that it signed a development agreement with Alsea to open its first location in Mexico early next year. Alsea operates the Latin American and European locations of a number of food and beverage chains, including Starbucks, Dominos Pizza, and Burger King, according to CNBC. Chipotle also indicated plans to explore additional expansion markets in the region, signaling further locations in Latin America. “We are confident that our responsibly sourced, classically cooked real food will resonate with guests in Mexico,” Nate Lawton, chief business development officer at Chipotle, said in a statement. “The country’s familiarity with our ingredients and affinity for fresh food make it an attractive growth market for our company.” The fast-casual chain, which currently operates more than 3,700 restaurants, also reiterated its plans to open between 315 and 345 new restaurants this year, with a long-term target of operating 7,000 locations in the U.S. and Canada. The popular chain opened 304 new restaurants in 2024, its most openings in a single year. (In 2023, it opened 271 locations, and in 2022, 200 restaurants.) And this is not Chipotle’s first foray beyond the U.S. borders. It operates 58 locations in Canada, 20 in the United Kingdom, six in France, and two in Germany. In 2023, it signed its first international development agreement with Alshaya Group to open restaurants in the Middle East; as a result, it now operates three restaurants in Kuwait and two in the United Arab Emirates. Last year, many beloved U.S. fast-casual and restaurant chains struggled to stay afloat, while many others shut down or filed for bankruptcy. The majority of Wahlburgers locations shut down in January, and fast-casual chain Roti has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, as have both Red Lobster and Buca di Beppo.
Category:
E-Commerce
In a time where tariff price hikes are invading seemingly every element of life, diving into a video game could offer a welcome reprieve, both spiritually and fiscally. Digital video games do not require materials, shipping, or manufacturing costs, allowing them to cross borders without incurring extra fees. And the video game industry has been shifting to digital long before Trump’s so-called Liberation Day. In terms of software, PC gaming is now overwhelmingly digital, and physical versions are largely obsolete, says Manu Rosier, market intelligence director at Newzoo. We do not expect tariffs to significantly impact the price of video game software. However, video-game-industry analysts say that although the prices of digital software likely will not increase, stress about the tariffs may still cause a shift in U.S. consumer spending on games. When thinking about the ways that spending on games may change in the coming months, Mat Piscatella, executive games director at Circana, says that its important to consider the ways that other parts of life will be impacted by the tariffs. One of the big reasons for what we saw happen with the November elections was around the cost of everyday-spending categories like groceries and housing, he says. That certainly won’t be alleviated in the current tariff layout, and so that could further push video game consumers toward the big free-to-play or more accessible games. Because of this, Piscatella tentatively projects that the video game industry may see a drop in demand for premium video games. However, games with long and deep connections to their player basessuch as Fortnite, Minecraft, Grand Theft Auto, Roblox, and Call of Dutycould gain more ground. In Newzoo’s 2025 PC and Console Gaming Report, analysts found that in 2024, 58% of all PC gaming revenue came from microtransactions, such as players purchasing loot boxes and other in-game goods. This was only a 1.4% growth increase from 2023, but tariff worries could prompt a steeper incline. Spending $5 or $20 on a game you already love is easier than dropping $80 on a new title, says Piscatella. These titles already have social and monetary hooks that keep players engaged. This continued engagement is crucial in the video game industry, which hit peak audience growth during the worst years of the COVID-19 pandemic. From the late ’70s onward, every year we would have more people playing and more people playing for more hours, says Piscatella. Then, in 2020 and 2021, we had this huge wave of people come in. So we hit a ceiling on both the number of players and hours of engagement, in the U.S. in particular. Ever since then, the goals of the industry have shifted from growing the audience to maintaining and increasing the spending from the existing audience. One part of the gaming industry that will have a more difficult time with retention is undoubtedly physical games and gaming hardware in general. This is bad news for a company like Nintendo which was set to begin preorders in the U.S. for its Switch 2 but had to push the date back to April 24 due to tariff announcements. A chief concern revolves around the Switch 2. Nintendo systems are the most physical forward of all the in-market devices. They’ve made a big point about delivering physical software so games could be easily shared among family members, says Piscatella. How many units of Switch hardware can you even allocate to the U.S., given all the uncertainties, right? How much is the potential market for physical cartridges really going to be, at least in the short term? Rosier agrees. Tariffs could affect packaged games, which are already set to be more expensive than their digital versions,” he says. “This might encourage more players to shift to digital, and Nintendo may adjust physical production accordingly. However, it’s important to note that economic factors are shifting so rapidly that it is difficult to make any solid predictions of the future to come. Right now the uncertainties are off the charts, says Piscatella. People will still love video games and they’ll still play them, but how they play them and how they spend on them, that might certainly change.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||